Ravens set three team records at state meet

ROCHESTER/YPSILANTI – The off-season “things to do” list just got a little bit longer for a couple of area swim teams. “Train for next year” will be supplemented by “update the record board” at Royal Oak and Berkley high schools.

Royal Oak, which has broken six records this fall, set three new standards at the Division 2 state championship meet this weekend.

“We broke both of our school records. In the medley everybody dropped time, and in the 200 everybody dropped time as well,” Heitchue said.

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If there was a downside to those events, it was that Royal Oak finished just shy of the top 16, which would have qualified them for Saturday’s final heats. The medley relay was 19th while the freestyle relay was 17th.

“We had a lot of girls on the team that were planning to come out and watch the relays on Saturday, but we just missed in both of those,” Coach Tracy Kalinowski said. “They stayed in school, but they were cheering for us on Facebook.”

Heitchue’s workload did extend into Saturday’s portion of the meet, as she swam in the consolation heats in both of her individual events. She placed ninth in the 100 freestyle (:53.41), breaking her own school record set during Friday’s preliminaries.

In the 100 breaststroke, Heitchue finished in an almost-unheard-of three-way tie. She, Temperance Bedford’s Hanna Martin and Dexter’s Lizzie Merriman touched the wall simultaneously, each finishing with an automatically timed mark of 1:08.70.

Heitchue said Friday that the state meet is like no other competition.

“It definitely does require a different mindset. It’s a bigger event on a bigger scale. You’re seeing a lot of people that are all really fast, and they’re around the same time as you. It’s definitely more exciting, and it’s something that’s definitely bigger than a league meet,” she explained. “I had a lot of fun and the three girls that came here with me had a lot of fun too. It was a great time.”

Kalinowski had nothing but praise for her senior all-stater.

“She’s really been our top swimmer for the last couple years,” the coach said. “She really gets the rest of them excited because she allows everyone else to make it to states and to keep improving. This is her first time in making it in two (individual) events instead of just one, and she’s real excited about that. She’s excited to swim in college and show them what she’s got.”

Although none of Berkley’s state qualifiers made it past Friday’s preliminary heats, first-year coach Becca Jenzen was still enthusiastic over how the Bear-acudas progressed through the season.

“I’m not disappointed at all,” she said Friday. “For what we started with at the beginning of the year and where we ended, I’m just beyond thrilled. There were a lot of huge time drops overall, both with the state girls and the team as a whole.”

Berkley’s 200 medley relay team, with freshman Emma Weisberger, sophomore Molly Logsdon, and juniors Kristin Dona and Allie Archambault, set a school record this year. The four swam the event in 1:56.57 Friday, which ranked them 25th.

In addition, Dona (2:17.77) was 30th in the individual medley while Logsdon (1:09.86) was 30th in the breaststroke.

“We came at it as ‘hard work will pay off at the end,’ so we trained hard and here we are,” Jenzen said. “All the girls that qualified for our events were underclassmen, so I have the whole (state) team coming back. Our medley relay team broke a school record and they’re all coming back next year, so I’ll be expecting great things.”

In the Division 3 meet held at Eastern Michigan University, Ferndale sophomore Maya Keener placed 15th in the 500 freestyle, at 5:37.11. It was the sophomore’s first time competing at a state final.

“It was really nice to focus on one event and not be scared about wasting my energy with a lot of races,” she said. “I only started the distance events last year, so I am really trying to focus on those now.”

Keener matched her personal-best time, 5:35, in Friday’s preliminary heat, and has her sights set even higher in the future.

“The school record is a 5:21, and I hope to make that by my senior year,” she said.

Several girls represented Troy High in the Division 1 finals at the Holland Aquatic Center, although none made it past Friday’s qualifying heats.

The Colts had two relays that placed 19th: the 200 medley squad of Jacqueline Burke, China Burke, Michelle Wang and Rosanna Li swam 1:53.54, while the 200 free relay of Burke, Burke, Libby Engle and Wang was clocked in 1:41.90.

Individually for Troy, Wang (2:14.45) was 28th and Joanne Tan (2:17.46) was 40th in the individual medley, while China Burke (1:09.69) was 27th in the breaststroke.